WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- A U.S. District
Court has ordered Pan American Airways to reinstate with back pay a
pilot whom it had terminated for refusing to violate FAA rules that
mandate minimum rest requirements.

The ruling ends nearly two years of legal wrangling by the
Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based airline to avoid reinstatement of the
terminated pilot despite repeated rulings against it in grievance and
court proceedings brought by the Air Line Pilots Association, which
represents the pilot.

The dispute began on Jan. 3, 2001 when Pan Am management
immediately terminated Capt. Don Simonds for refusing to take an
assigned flight upon his belief that the assignment would cause him to
violate a Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR 121.471(b), the "16-hour
rule"), as interpreted by the FAA's "Whitlow letter."

Because Capt. Simonds did not specifically claim to be fatigued --
which is irrelevant to compliance with this rule -- and because Pan Am
disputed the FAA's interpretation of the 16-hour rule set forth in
the FAA's November 20, 2000 "Whitlow letter," management
claimed that Capt. Simonds was insubordinate for not following the
company's orders and the "fly now, grieve later"
principle.

FAA rules require that before starting a flying assignment, a pilot
must be able to determine that when he finishes that flight, he will
have received eight hours rest in the previous 24 hours. The
"Whitlow letter" refers to an interpretation issued by the FAA
stating that the end of the 24-hour cycle must be calculated using the
expected arrival time based on the flight segment as calculated at that
moment ("actual time"). The industry had claimed that the
arrival time should be the time as originally scheduled. The problem is
that delays, a frequent occurrence in airline operations, could extend
the pilot's work time well past the originally scheduled arrival
time, which means that when he finishes the last flight segment, he may
not have gotten the required eight hours rest in the preceding 24 hours.

ALPA filed a grievance on Simonds' behalf and the System Board
awarded reinstatement with full back pay, finding Pan Am had no just
cause to discharge Simonds.

Despite the System Board's decision, Pan Am refused to
reinstate Capt. Simonds. ALPA then sued in District Court for the
District of Columbia to enforce the award. The court ruled on June 19,
2002 in favor of ALPA on cross-motions for summary judgment, upholding
the System Board's award. Nonetheless, Pan Am continued to refuse
to reinstate Simonds, appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit. Pan Am filed a motion to stay enforcement
of the award, which the District Court denied.

When Pan Am again refused to reinstate Simonds, ALPA filed a motion
for an Order to Show Cause why the company should not be held in
contempt of the District Court's order enforcing the award. On
December 6, 2002, after a hearing, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates granted ALPA's motion and rejected the company's argument that
it should not be required to reinstate Simonds. Judge Bates gave Pan Am
five days to reinstate Capt. Simonds. The judge also ordered that if
Simonds were not reinstated within the time limit, the company's
officers would have to appear before him to explain the company's
"neglect, failure and willful refusal" to comply with the
award, and face fines of $5,000 for each day of continued
non-compliance, plus other sanctions.

The company finally capitulated in the face of the contempt
sanctions and issued a letter reinstating Simonds on December 9, 2002.
He is scheduled for recurrent training in early January. The company
has appealed the ruling, but given the strength of the District
Court's ruling, the appeal is expected to have little chance of
success.

Pan Am may face further sanctions for its wretched behavior. The
parties were ordered to submit briefs on the issue of whether Pan Am
should be sanctioned by the court for its pre-reinstatement conduct.

ALPA, the world's oldest and largest pilots' union,
represents 66,000 airline pilots at 43 airlines in the U.S. and Canada.
Its Web site is http://www.alpa.org/ .